. >> republican senate minority leader mitch mcconnell also talked about the so-called fiscal cliff on the floor of the senate. >> it was widely assumed among republicans that president obama and democrats back toward to avoid it. that was the common goal, or so we thought. over the past couple of weeks, and has become increasingly clear to many of us that we were simply wrong about that. incredibly, many top democrats, including the president, seemed perfectly happy to go off the cliff. that is why the president has been more interested in campaign rallies than actually negotiating a deal. that explains why the president is stubbornly insisting on raising tax rates when he himself said just last year that you raised more revenue from capping deductions than closing loopholes. this is not about the deficit for them, or balance. it's about an ideological campaign that most americans thought would have ended on november 6. the president said timothy geithner of beer with a proposal -- up here with a proposal that was more a provocation than a proposal, to be perfectly frank about it. it